IANS reported that Bharatiya Janata Party alleged that the Congress is trying to shield former Jharkhand chief minister Mr Madhu Koda who is facing charges of laundering INR 2500 crore and his associates.

Mr Raghubar Das state BJP president in a joint press conference with former chief minister and Lok Sabha MP Arjun Munda said that “The Congress is trying to shield Mr Koda and his two associates Mr Vinod Sinha and Mr Sanjay Chaudhary. The arrest warrants against Mr Sinha and Mr Chaudhary were delayed deliberately to help them mitigate the evidence and escape from the country.”

Mr Das said that “The way the Koda probe is being handled raises many questions. We are not satisfied with the pace of investigations and it seems there is a move to protect the people involved in the case.”

On the role of Mr Arjun Munda as chief minister of a BJP government when Koda was mines and geology minister, he said that “The final authority is the central government to decide on iron ore mines allocation. The state government only makes recommendation of mines. The role of the central government should also be probed in mines allocation as the investigation is from 2004 onwards when the United Progressive Alliance was ruling the country.”

(Sourced from www.thaindian.com)